Gigabyte X58A-OC Sub Zero Review

Some Fun

We’ve often said that as great as a processor is, your money is usually better spent of a good GPU if you plan on gaming. A great GPU can overcome even a lowly processor, whereas the opposite isn’t really true.

With 5.4 GHz of Hexcore goodness powering our GTX560Ti, we end up with a score pretty much identical to that we obtained on our 4GHz i7-950. The rest of the Intels power is just generating heat and sitting twiddling its thumbs.

Can we go lower? Of course we can. How about an ATI HD5500? So low on power that it’s passively cooled. So there definitely is a balance between having a mental CPU and having a good GPU.

Finally there is a reason that so much validation is necessary when going for extremely high clocks. Sometimes things don’t quite report back correctly. However this is a nice little tombstone for our Core i7-980X which died during the making of the review. 73 GHz everybody 🙂